This book concerns a particular set of individual actors who work within theatres of collaboration – settings that involve agencies uniting to design and deliver public services both within and between sectors. These individual actors are referred to as ‘boundary spanners’ because they engage in ‘boundary spanning’ activities that cross, weave and permeate many traditional boundary types, including organisational, sectoral, professional and policy.

Collaboration in the UK has proliferated across all areas of public policy, particularly in response to the interconnected and complex nature of policy issues. As Luke (1998, p 5) observes: ‘in the last twenty years, a quiet crystallization of interdependencies has set in that has changed the way we engage in public action. We are now tied into multiple webs of interconnections never before witnessed in human history’. As a consequence, the breadth and depth of collaboration has expanded over the last decade, and has emerged as an integral component of the design and delivery of public services. New forms of governance and management arrangements have developed which challenge existing practices and demand different skills and capacities. The success of this model of public policy is critical to the quality of life for many service users and citizens who are often disadvantaged by a lack of coordination and duplication between service providers in dealing with their complex and interrelated needs. Forms of collaboration are central to the efficiency and effectiveness of scarce public resources, particularly during periods of unprecedented financial restraint. This book, therefore, has been written at an opportune time where the imperatives of collaboration are being experienced across the range of public policy and practice, and insights and lessons contained within the book will hopefully inform the practical design of collaborative solutions.

Policy makers and practitioners are eager to search for ‘what works’ in a dynamic policy field replete with complexity, ambiguity and tension. While the broad thrust and benefits of collaboration are accepted, delivery in practice is highly problematic. Negotiating and enacting common purpose among multiple and diverse agencies with different cultures, management systems, accountabilities and purposes is complex, and understanding the structural and agential determinants of success is difficult to unravel.